Chapter 3

The cameras did not stop rolling.

Ridley could hear them — the soft whir of a focus motor, the click of a shutter, the murmur of the cameramen who had been hired by the base public affairs office to document the ceremony for the archive. They were behind the ranks, elevated on a small platform, and they had a clear line of sight to the third rank where Calder stood.

Where he had struck her.

The blood on his sleeve had dried to a stiff brown line now. He could feel it pulling at the fabric when he moved his arm, which he had not done in several minutes. He stood with his hands at his sides, his white peaked cap sitting straight on his head because he was too afraid to touch it, too afraid that any gesture would look like something the cameras could use.

The formation had not reformed.

That was the part that kept catching him. He had given a direct order to the senior enlisted man on the ground — the Master Chief — and the Master Chief had refused. He had given a direct order to the Marines, and they had stayed out of ranks. He had given a direct order to the Navy Chief Petty Officer, and the man had actually crossed his arms.

Arms crossed. In front of a rear admiral. On a parade ground with two thousand service members present.

Ridley had served long enough to know that he would never forgive the insult, and he had served long enough to know that the insult was the least of his problems.

"Sir," Delgado said, and his voice was carefully empty, the way a man's voice gets when he is building a wall between himself and the person he is talking to, "I think we need to move this somewhere private."

"We are not moving this anywhere," Ridley said. "This is my parade ground. This is my formation. And that sergeant is going to —"

"She's not going to do anything, sir."

Ridley turned to look at Delgado. The captain's face was pale under his olive skin, and his hands were no longer folded at his waist. They were at his sides, and the fingers were slightly curled, the posture of a man who is about to step away from a falling tree.

"She's not going to do anything," Delgado repeated, "because you just hit her. On camera. In front of two thousand witnesses. For refusing an unlawful order that I am going to have to testify about, because I was standing right here when you gave it."